Wurlitzer

[Cobus]

I have a Wurlitzer Orgatron Series 20. I am looking for a service manual for this organ. Can anyone help me? Cobus. Karibib - Namibia.

[Jay999]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi Cobus. I recently had a similar situation, trying to locate a rare schematic. I went to two sources, and got a schematic from the second one....</P>


Try googling over to MITA (Musical Instrument Technicians Association). They have a "question" box you can leave a message in. The president of the club will correspond with you over your e-mail address, and encourage his fellow techs to try looking for a schematic for you. (If you offer to pay perhaps a few dollars for a good copy, it might help them look a little harder).</P>


Then google over to Theatre Organ Home Page. Do the sign up proceedures, and then poke around the site to get you into the classified ad section. Write a classified ad, and again offer a few dollars for a good copy of the schematic. The theatre organ site is where I had luck obtaining my schematic.</P>


As a long shot, you might also try googling over to Morelock's Music Service. They have a family member who worked for Wurlitzer as a factory field technician. They bought up most of Wurlitzer's inventory, and supplied me with parts and schematics for the 4500 series, which is a newer model than what you have. However, they are worth checking to see if they have a model 20 schematic. The lady in charge of communications is named Janice. She's a sweetheart, but it often takes a day or two for her to get back to you. So a little patience will be rewarded, I promise.</P>


Best wishes....hope this will help you out!</P>

[Cobus]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi Jay ! Thank you for the advice. I will follow it up. I am prepared to pay for whatever info I can get. On a more practical note - it might be easier to scan the pages and e-mail them to me - but that will depend on the person that can help me. Thanks again!</P>


Cobus</P>


[email protected]</P>

[bluetantra]

Re: Wurlitzer



Morelock's does indeed have the Series 20 service manual. I purchased a copy from Miss Janice earlier this year for use with my own Series 20. The cost was about $25 USD plus shipping. As service manuals go, this one is well-written and includes many helpful photos and drawings. It also includes service information about the WurliTzer tone cabinets meant for the Series 20.</p>

The e-mail address is [email protected] and the telephone number is (662) 462-7611.</p>

I'm curious... what type of problem have you encountered with your Series 20? Mine is/was full of mechanical ciphers (as opposed to electrical ciphers) due to weakened springs on the individual magnet assemblies and two missing pallets. I haven't decided yet what to use to replace the missing pallets. (Jay, if you have any suggestions about this, I'd appreciate hearing them.)</p>

Aside from ciphers, another common issue with the Series 20 is under-sized resistors in several places throughout the organ. One-third watt "dog-bone" resistors were installed at the factory, but WurliTzer recommended a number of these be changed (on the reed chest and in the pre-amp) to half-watt resistors of equivalent value. This information is also in the service manual.</p>

John</p>

[Jay999]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi John....thanks for supplying that complete e-mail address for our friend here.</P>


On your pallet problem....you might give a call to Columbia Organ Leathers, and also Leather Supply House and see if they would accept one of your pallets that you can remove from the reed cell and make matching pallets for your model 20. I had a model 50 many years ago, and I remember the pallets on that model were sort of rounded off on the edges, and rectangle shaped. (Quite different from a standard pipe organ valve). Also, much thinner felt between the armature and the valve....is that sort of what you have? If you could take one of your complete pallet actions out of the reed cell, and then also the two that are missing the pallets....you could send these in for duplication service. It would be important for the complete action to be in their shop so they could duplicatethe seating alignment for glueing up your new pallets to the other actions. I don't think either one of these people would charge you very much to do that job. My best experience has been with Columbia and I would recommend them first......</P>


Columbia Organ Leathers www.columbiaorgan.com 800-423-7003 I'd recommend this one first.</P>


Leather Supply House (don't have a web address) 908-389-1000.</P>


Also, you might ask over at Morelock's if they have any pallet pads left over....although the leather might be quite hard by now.</P>


Best wishes.....</P>

[Cobus]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi Guys !</P>


Thanks a lot for your support! I ordered the service manual from Janice, and I suspect that it would take approximately six weeks to reach Namibia. John, on your question - I would like to study the manual first in order that we talk the same language - I might refer to a part that is described differently in the manual. What I can tell you is the following: the mountings of the electric motor of the blowerhas weared to such an extent that the motor rest on the wooden casing of the blower box. This causes vibrations to be transfered and a low humming sound is heard when the organ is switched on - at first I thought that it might be a 50Hz hum, but I found no fault with the earthing. Some of the stops sound exactly the same, although they represent different instruments. There is a stop for CHIMES - I cannot find anything remotely in the organ that can generate such sound. I have one tone cabinet - the one with "lesley" kind of speakers - am I to understand that a second tone cabinet was also used - an Echo cabinet? The organ has a beautiful sound - I had some classical training on the pipe organ, and I just love to play this organ. I would like to restore it to its' full capacity.</P>


Regards from a hot and dry Namibia!</P>


Cobus.</P>

[OrgansR4Me]

Re: Wurlitzer

Cobus, you should be able to address worn motor mountings with just about any comparable rubber grommet. As to the voicing problem you'll want to learn from the manual how the "formant" circuits work and probably replace some of the resistors and capacitors. Are you already trained in reading schematics? If not, you'll want to purchase some basic electronics training literature. Best wishes. These early Wurly's were a great achievement in electronics in their day and some folks feel they still represent one of the best electronic reproductions of a pipe organ.

[Cobus]

Re: Wurlitzer

Thanks for the advice. I have friends that are both electric and electronic engineers - they can help me where my own capabilities fail. I can't wait to lay my hands on the manual, but unfortunately it will only be here when the businesses in our country start closing down for the Christmas season - I suppose patience is a virtue. Nice talking to you guys across the Atlantic. Will keep you all posted. Cobus.

[Jay999]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi cobus...on my model 50 I had a stop tab labeled "Chimes" like you mentioned. In the model 50 there was a set of contacts that moved into place when that tab was turned on that were "pre-installed" so a regular set of tubular chimes would be keyed from those contacts. Is that perhaps what you have on your model 20?</P>


I'm glad you have some electronics people to help you out. Here in bustling, busy Atlanta, all the "professional organ technicians" want to work on are Hammonds.</P>


Best wishes, and good luck!</P>

[Cobus]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi Jay &amp; other guys,</P>


I cannot switch my organ on at the moment because I took the blower box apart. The wiring for Chimes seem to be in place, but I cannot find tubular chimes - where must I look? (Maybe someone removed it). I discussed the motor mountings with a friend of mine. According to him they frequently install electric motors in places where no vibrations are allowed. They call it floating suspension. He will see what mountings he can source that will do the job. Grommets will work (thanks for the tip!), but these floating mountings will transfer less vibrations. (Another possibility is to take the best mounting apart, make a mold of the rubber part, and cast it in silicone rubber.) I will let you know once they are in, and what effect they have. Whilst I am waiting for the manual, I want to start working on the exterior of the organ. There was some water damage (minor), and some of the varnish blistered. I do not knowanything of the period varnishes that Wurlitzer used, but I suspect that it was Shellac dissolved in Ethanol. Any leads on this? Various modern varnishes are available in Namibia, but I would like to stay as close to the original as possible.</P>


Regards,</P>


Cobus.</P>

[Jay999]

Re: Wurlitzer



Cobus....about the chimes. I believe that on your model 20, just like my model 50....the key contacts were probably "pre-installed" at the Wurlitzer factory to play a real set of chimes....not an electronic sound built into the organ console. Back in those days, these organs were sold by musical instrument dealers that would also sell real Deagan, Mass-Rowe, or Mayland chimes units separatly. These units usually were hung on the wall, and had solonoid strikers that were "keyed" by a relay built into the chimes unit, and the relay keyed by the contacts found in the organ keyboard contacts. A "good" organ salesman of the time would have pointed out to the purchaser that there was already a "built in chimes contact system" so you could hook up a set of chimes to the organ very easily.</P>


Though you have found the wiring for chimes to be in place, the chimes unit has been left behind, perhaps still hanging on a wall, or perhaps still standing on a floor stand. Or perhaps, the chimes unit was not installed in your particular console at all. Just the wiring and contacts that were installed at the factory.</P>


Wurlitzer always used lacquer for their cabinet finishes of this era. You can possiblly find some color samples of wood finish in a local paint store, (if they deal in furniture refinishing supplies), or if there is a local furniture refinisher, ask him to look at your console and sell you some finish he can make for you that would be the correct color. Best wishes......</P>

[Guest]

Re: Wurlitzer



i'd like to see a picture. maybe this is irrelevant but i'll throw my experience from making cabinets, staining, sealing and topcoating out there.</p>

we have to match colors quite frequently and you'd be surprised how close you can get a stain to the original. We use laquer or mineral spirit base stain, and use dyes to add to the concentrate. Get a sample of the same wood and rub small sections a time until you find the right color overall and the right darkness in the grain. it may take a while, and every time you think you have it you will need to put a sealer on it to make sure you've found a match since the sealer darkens things up a bit sometimes.
</p>

Of course with staining cabinets it is next to impossible to add touchup stain to mistakes or sandthroughs since it will either A) look splotchy (not to mention uneven from bare wood spots next to sealed and topcoated areas) or B) eat away the topcoat and sealer. Make a mistake in cabinets between sealing coats and topcoat and unless you have a bit of luck on your side you can expect to pretty much sand that whole side back down to wood and start over.</p>

Of course I have no idea how they apply the coat on instruments. Merely throwing out my experience which now that I read, seems really irrelevant (sorry)</p>

edit: But if the wood on your instrument is stained then you may have to worry about your touch up stain (which i'm sure a cabinet shop can match the color if you bring them a sample)- And there may be a stain involved because as far as I know, varnish contains no color pigment. If your organ's wood is natural then it will make things a lot easier.
</p>

</p>

[Jay999]

Re: Wurlitzer



Hi summersound....you're absolutely right in your approach to touching up finishes. </P>


I'm no expert at touching up furniture scratches and dings! Best I can do is to obtain a stain that is in the same color family...then apply some stain to a separate scrap piece of wood. While that is still wet, I daub my brush into that and begin stroking the brush on clean places of the scrap wood...when I have just so very little of the stain left on my brush, I then transfer that onto the cabinet scratch. I keep on doing this until I have the scratch covered with the stain. Then I use a spray can of clear lacquer, and over spray the place. When that is dry, I then use some 0000 steel wool to abraze the place, which renders a "satin" finish.</P>


This is by no means an expert repair....but it does make a scratch disappear. The original post was about touching up the scratch with schellac...and of course that would not have been the right choice. That is why I mentioned lacquer.</P>


Thanks for your comments...I enjoyed reading about the art of touching up, and refinishing!</P>


Best wishes.....</P>

[Guest]

Re: Wurlitzer

and thank you for sharing your technique as well!

[bluetantra]

Re: Wurlitzer



Jay- Thank you for the information about possible options for replacing the missing pallets in my Series 20. They are shaped as you described those in the Series 50, sort of rectangular with rounded corners.</p>

The service manual does give information about the Chimes in the section about Auxiliary Equipment:</p>

Model 6001 Chime Adapter</p>

The model 6001 Chime Adapter includes a Great manual contact rail, transformer, cable and female receptacle. Kit 601 used with this adapter provides hand adjustment of the intensity control of the chimes. Kit 600 provides foot operated intensity control. Kit 600 and 601 are optional. The compass of the chime adapter is 21 notes, A No. 22 to F No. 42 in chromatic order. Chimes with floor stand or wall mounting, cable and male plug to connect into this chime adapter can be purchased from chime manufacturers. When chimes are ordered, specify that they will be used on the Wurlitzer Organ, Series 20.</p>